Basic Interviewing Techniques

Preparation

Know at least the basics about

(a) Who you’re interviewing and,
(b) What you’re interviewing them about.

Well, that's the least you can do!

Remember that you’re interviewing a person for the benefit of the viewer. You need to think what your viewers are interested in; what they already know; and what they would like to find out. You should then think about questions that will achieve this for your viewer. You may have your own very strong opinions about the person you’re going to interview, or the topic you’re discussing. These may help you to come up with some good ideas for questions, but you shouldn’t let your personal views colour the interview.

You’ll also only get an interesting interview if the person you’re speaking to is interesting and knows what they’re talking about. Before you arrange an interview with someone, make sure they’re the right person for the job!

Make sure you know how the interview is going to be used, and how much air-time is available for it. There’s no point recording a 50 minute interview if all you want is a comment for your "What’s On" bulletin!

Types of Interview

Informative - The aim to allow the "expert" to explain the issue or event. Even if you know the answers already, your job is to ask the questions that will get the best, most important and most interesting information from your guest. For example: Asking the State Rural Department Secretary what NREGA is all about.

Challenging -The aim is to get the guest to explain, defend or comment on issues that your viewers already know about, or that you present to them. E.g. it may be a politician defending cuts to the education budget; or an environmentalist criticising government policy. Your job is to (a) present the known facts and (b) (politely) to force the guest to give their defence/opinion etc. If you happen to agree with your guest, you’ll only really get an interesting interview out of them if you present another side of the argument or play "devil’s advocate". For example, asking the same Secretary why jobs are not being assigned under NREGA even after 14 days as per the Act.

Emotional - This can be awful if done badly but wonderful if done well! Your viewers are interested in issues that affect people emotionally, and in "eavesdropping" into people’s emotional experiences. Your job is to sensitively and tactfully draw your guest into talking openly about their anger, fear, disappointment, grief, disbelief etc. Watch Simi Garewal's show and you'll understand.

Entertaining - All forms of interview should be ‘entertaining’ in that they keep people interested and listening. But the primary aim of this is simply to entertain. The topic is generally not very serious. There are plenty of anecdotes and stories told. Your job is to lead the guest into the most entertaining of these. All those interviews with the stars that you see on TV.

Questions - open/closed

The interview will be most interesting to the viewers if your guest does most of the talking. Long-winded questions and "yes/no" answers don’t make interesting listening. Try to ask open questions - that is, questions that cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no".

Typical open questions may begin with:

- "What is your opinion on..."

- "Why do you.."

- "Who, what, how, why, where, when..." etc

Try not to ask closed questions - that is questions that can have just a "yes" or "no" answer. Typical closed questions may begin with:

- "do you think that..."

- "is it true that..."

- "are you happy about..."

The Importance of Listening

Although you may have prepared your interview very carefully, you don’t know exactly what your guest will say until the actual interview. Don’t simply have a list of questions that you stick to regardless of what your guest says. S/he might say something startlingly interesting, if so, follow it up. It may be a lot more interesting than the questions you had planned.

To make it easier to listen to your guest, keep your notes to a minimum. Just have a list of points you want to cover, and any other information you need. That way you won’t be so busy reading your notepad that you don’t hear what your guest is saying. If you don’t pick up on interesting points they raise, the people listening will feel frustrated that you haven’t asked a question that was begging to be asked!

Handling the interviewee

To get the best out of your interviewees they need to feel at ease. They’ll only be able to give you interesting or useful answers if they know what the interview is all about.

Therefore you should explain to your guest:

- what the interview is for and how it’s likely to be used. (e.g. will it be broadcast live; will it be edited down into segments for a feature etc)

- whether mistakes can be edited out, and whether you’ll do this.

- roughly how long the interview will take and roughly how much will be used.

- the topic you want to cover, and the general points you’d like to concentrate on. DON’T read out an exact list of questions or do a practice interview. Guests are generally at their best and most spontaneous the first time!

- if you are going to ask for exact figures or examples of something, try to give them some warning. They may need to think about it for a minute!

- where you want them to sit/stand

When you’re doing the interview:

-ask your questions clearly.

- listen carefully to what they’re saying, look interested and don’t be pre-occupied with your equipment. This will put them off what they’re saying.

- move the interview in a logical way don’t leap about all over the place.

Check out if these prove useful. If you have more tips, send them to me.